fuck this job.com

If you could only have one and not the other, which would you rather have? Good troops? ...or a good commander? Good subordinates or good boss? Why? What do you think?

I don't hate my job; it's not a bad job at all and I don't mind the work load. What makes me hate coming to work are our work conditions-I don't mean the stress of producing sorties or the great amount of effort it takes to accomplish our mission-I just don't think our management, our leadership, our supervision; they don't look after their own people.

I am not afraid to tell you, sir, that the money is not worth what I do, day in and day out, for this country. On the flight line, we come to work (even at home station!) not knowing what time we'll get to go home, every day, yet, everywhere else on base is shut down by 4 o'clock. People are overworked and underappreciated and fed cookie cutter praises, with no incentive to work any harder than they do when one sees another in a desk job career field with the same rank and the exact same pay have a better work environment, have more amenties, more privilege, more opportunities and work less hours. These support shops shutdown at least 3 times a week for P.T., to go to the gym (not adding to the work day, but in spite of), even while being deployed to the desert. Whereas our time revolves around a flight schedule and does not allow time for P.T., yet, we're held to the same physical standards as these other shops. Not every flightline shop is provided with coveralls or proper protective equipment, because of what "they" think of as cost effectiveness, even though just being on the flightline will produce extreme wear and tear on our uniforms and boots, yet we're still held to the same uniform standards as these support shops. We spend more money, out of pocket, than others, more frequently, on uniforms, polish, and maintainence just to be serviceable. Requests for rain gear and proper winter gear are turned away, saying that it should have been the responsibility of ones' last base. But not every base has the same climate conditions so there was not a need for such a clothing issue and first-term airmen who've come straight from tech school were issued nothing of the sort. I've seen troops wear civillian parkas and snow pants and "San Diego Zoo" ponchos, while working on jets, just to keep warm and/or dry. During surges we're instructed that we're not allowed to go to the chowhall and will receive box lunches, yet we have a flight kitchen to alleviate the time it would take to feed troops, driving all the way to the actual chowhall. That alone takes away from our morale. Being able to sit down at a hot meal provides us with a small break from work, to collect ourselves, put our brains on pause, a chance for smokers to smoke and for those who need to use the restroom, to do so in something other than a portapotty. But when we're given box lunches, that tiny little break in our day disappears and we eat while we work in unsanitary conditions (I, myself, have had the pleasure to eat a sandwhich after I had just left jet black fingerprints in it), so our 12 to 20 hour days ARE actually 12 to 20 hour days. Every day, we practice making war, fighting a war, by generating aircraft on a 3 shift, 24-hour opreration with an eight-hour fix rate. So why is it, when we go into excercise, we change our entire system of operation, causing chaos, confusion and disarray, while producing the same amount of output with twice as much of the normal input? I understand that in the AFI it states that if so many sorties are produced we are to go to 12 hour shifts and less will be lost in translation in turnover after a 12 hour shift. But, at the same time, what kind of troops do you have, what kind of production and what kind of effort could you expect to have on the way to that 12 hour shift? In my experience, just like in normal operation, things seem to go better by rotating in fresh, rested troops in an eight or nine-hour turn around. During an excercise, the chowhall and the BX are off limits, but in the desert, where war is relatively taking place, establishments such as these are not off limits. These are just a few of many concerns I have about our "job environment."

Oh, I wish I could just simply be a non-er
And have a normal lunch and have P-T
And if I were a super, stellar non-er
My supervision'd have me home by three

-For the FlightLine Worker Bees

I don't wanna stay in
I'm on Global Hawk Mids
There's a million reason why this program's up and gone to shit
We slave all day on a static display
It's the biggest toy plane there is
I don't wanna stay in, 'cuz if I did
I'd still be stuck on Global Hawk Mids

-For 12th Specs